


Photograph

by TrioMaxwell



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Paperman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 01:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1327411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrioMaxwell/pseuds/TrioMaxwell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ‘Possessed Photograph’ AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> Set during episode 7. Story starts at the Iwatobi High School rooftop where Gou was sharing the photos she had taken during their training camp and the information she had gleaned about the Samezuka swim team. 
> 
> The entire premise of this mad story is inspired by ‘Paperman”. Link to watch is found at the end.

**\- Iwatobi High School Rooftop -**

Haruka tuned out his friends’ chatter as they reminisced and teased each other over the photos taken during the island training camp and picked up the photograph of a familiar, redheaded boy. It was a picture of Rin, taken, as he pulled on his goggles and stepped up to the starting block. Gou had taken it without her brother’s knowledge, while being screened by two Samezuka members, it looked like. Haruka stared at the focus displayed in Rin’s very posture and attitude and wondered what it was that he saw when he swam.

Suddenly the wind gusted hard and strong, causing the photo to struggle like a live thing and slip out from his fingers. Makoto quickly moved to shield the rest of the photos from the wind while Gou jumped up to retrieve the photograph. However, it was too late. She, and the Iwatobi team, could only watch helplessly as the wind carried the photograph of Rin up and away, into the blue summer sky.

—————————-

**\- Samezuka High School Campus –**

“… an atom becomes much stabler when the outermost electron shells of their constituent atoms contain the maximum number of electrons. For most electron shells that number is eight, which is why it’s called the Octet rule…”

Matsuoka Rin stifled a sigh as he looked out of the window, half-heartedly listening to the Chemistry teacher lecture on about ionic and covalent bonds in molecules on the off chance she might mention something that he did not already know. He had already read up on this chapter, both in English and in Japanese, a necessary habit he had picked up after spending four years studying abroad in Australia, in order not to get left behind in classes. He did not like to be reminded of his ‘foreign Asian kid’ or ‘returnee kid’ status when he had trouble with the content of his textbooks just because the language was different from what he was used to.

“…In an ionic bond, the atoms first transfer electrons between each other, and achieve stability by changing into ions. These are bound together by the attraction between the oppositely-charged ions…”

His third-floor classroom looked out over the school field and he stared down disinterestedly at the students currently warming up for their Phys Ed lessons, all togged out in track pants and windbreakers, from his seat by the window. He blinked when he spotted his swim team captain, Mikoshiba Seijuurou, his tall physique and slicked back red hair standing out as he laughed and joked with his circle of friends.

Now, there’s a real stable person, he thought idly, resting his chin in his hand, unable to look away. Mikoshiba was like everyone’s dependable big brother, his character some benevolent and bizarre mix of 50% sunflower, 45% panther and 5% clown. You could gravitate to him if you were feeling down or pissed off about life in general and he’d always find time to have a few words with you and generally distract you from most (if not all) of your negativity. Mikoshiba was like oxygen, he could bond with pretty much anything. Except Rin, and that was because Rin refused to let him. Rin recognized that being pissed off and negative about himself and Haruka right now was the source of his perverse motivation to continue swimming. So, he held himself aloof, hugged his negative feelings to himself like they were precious and rebuffed his Captain’s attempts to be friendly and ‘get to know him better’. In other words, he simply refused to bond. That didn’t mean that Mikoshiba stopped trying, though. If anything, he tried harder. Despite his mild ire at Mikoshiba for not leaving him alone, he recognized that Samezuka was fortunate to have him as the Captain of their largest and most prestigious sports club. He was a good leader and role model, disciplined and fair. Rin respected him enough not to give him too much sass. He valued both teamwork and a healthy competitive spirit, things Rin used to value too, a long time ago.

Rin continued watching as the class of third year students lined up in twos to go for a run around the track. Mikoshiba hung back, then bent down to tie a shoelace that he had only just realized had come undone. Just as he stood up, a piece of paper hit him in the face, blown in by a strong gust of wind that came up out of nowhere, causing him to stagger in surprise. Rin looked on in detached amusement as Mikoshiba peeled the piece of paper off his face, then in surprise as Mikoshiba looked down at the paper in his hand and laughed. Mikoshiba started glancing around, as though looking for something or someone, and Rin wondered what the errant piece of paper was about. Then Mikoshiba looked up and locked eyes with Rin, causing Rin to flinch, to look away, face flushing red at having been caught staring. Rin stole a glance back down at Mikoshiba, who was waving up at him and smiling sunnily as if he had found what he was looking for.  He jerked his glance away, face flushing redder.

_What the hell, why are you looking at me? Go away, run, leave me alone, you confuse me, I don’t know why, fucking hell, leave me alone, leave me alone._

——————

Mikoshiba stopped waving when it was apparent that Matsuoka wasn’t going to look at him anymore. It was a tremendous challenge getting through the walls that the grumpy second-year student had thrown up around him and even though Mikoshiba wasn’t about to give up, he was starting to believe it would take a miracle to get through to the prickly, anti-social boy and make him feel among friends and a part of the team.

He looked down at the picture of Matsuoka that had blown up to make itself acquainted with his face. It was a nicely taken candid shot, he thought as he admired the subject, even though it looked like it was taken from a stalker’s point of view. The light highlighted Matsuoka’s physique perfectly, his muscular arms and impressive obliques, his usual scowl replaced by a look of single-minded determination. From the background in the picture, it had to have been taken at the pool facility during their island training camp. The only person with a camera at that time had been the younger Matsuoka sibling who had visited them on their second day of training. So why was this photograph floating around the Samezuka campus anyway? Surely, it hadn’t blown in all the way from the campus in Iwatobi? Shaking his head at the mystery, he slipped the photograph into his jacket pocket and started running to catch up with his classmates.

——————-

Mikoshiba was walking back to his dorm alone when he felt the evening wind blow with enough force to ruffle his gelled up hair. It reminded him of the incident in the morning and the photograph that lay forgotten in his jacket. He fished around in his backpack for the mysterious object and took it out to study it and the puzzle it posed. To his surprise, his fingers seemed to pass through it and promptly swore as the wind succeeded in carrying it away. He lunged for the piece of paper and managed to catch it with his fingertips. The wind then died down but Mikoshiba fancied he could feel the photograph tremble in his hand. It was as though the photograph was alive, wanted to go somewhere, but where?

Mikoshiba stared at the picture with a niggling suspicion in his mind, then holding his breath, released it to test his hypothesis, whereupon it simply floated to the floor and lay there, like the ordinary, innocuous piece of coloured paper it was supposed to be. Mikoshiba stared at the inert photograph, willing it to get up and  _go_ , then felt stupid. “Seriously? What were you expecting?” He chided himself.

Sighing, he reached down for the photograph and it  _skittered_  away from him, then zipped between his legs in the opposite direction.

_What the hell!_

Mikoshiba spun around and saw the photograph pause at the end of the path as if waiting for him, then spin and pirouette on one corner, and zip off in the direction of the school. Mikoshiba sprinted after it, wondering why he felt so inexplicably pissed off by an inanimate object. Okay, maybe ‘inanimate’ wasn’t really the word to use, was it? The precocious piece of possessed paper wasn’t even pretending to be blown about by the wind anymore, was teasing him in a “catch me if you can!” way through pure paper language and by golly, he was going to catch that photograph, tape it to the wall and give it a piece of his mind, threaten it with a sharpie maybe, before exorcising it or something. But, before that, he had to catch it first. The photograph led him on a merry chase around the campus before heading, to Mikoshiba’s consternation, to the Samezuka library. Shit, if it entered the library, he would never find it! He hoped that the photograph would splat itself flat against the glass doors, but no, it slipped between the gap between the door and floor instead, venturing straight into the building.

He despaired at the thought of having to hunt for the photograph in an exasperating game of hide-and-seek among the bookshelves of the expansive building, and thus was surprised to see it lying on the floor, in full view, at one of the shelves at the end of the Literature section. He bent down and picked it up, a little distrusting of how it now lay quiescent in his hands. He even shook it a little and sighed when there was no response. _Why is this piece of paper playing dead now?_

An exasperated huff of breath echoed his sigh and he looked around the bookshelf to see Matsuoka Rin seated at a study table, fingers digging into the bridge of his nose, muttering what sounded like English expletives under his breath, before pushing himself back into his chair and tossing his pen to the table in frustration.

Mikoshiba ducked back behind the bookshelf and considered his options  _(‘Talk to Rin’ or ‘Walk away’?)_ , feeling like a character in an otome RPG. He lifted the photograph up and glared at the image. He then brought the photograph closer to his face and whispered, “Next time, just cut to the chase and lead me straight to him, okay?” He jumped a little when the photograph responded by plastering itself against his lips. He raised an eyebrow at the photograph and it gave a little paper shrug and went still. Mikoshiba squared his shoulders as he slipped the curious piece of paper between the pages of a textbook in his backpack to prevent it from creasing.

Right. If even the supernatural was conspiring to bring him and Matsuoka Rin together, then the cranky redhead didn’t stand a chance, because they were going to be friends, spend time together and bond, dammit.

He cleared his throat as he stepped out from behind the bookshelf and Matsuoka jumped in surprise. “Buchou!” He lowered his voice, recovering from his surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Eh, don’t mind me. I just ran into the library to look for something and I heard someone cussing in the corner. Sure didn’t expect to find you here.”That much was true at least. Mikoshiba looked at the items arranged in front of his junior with interest; a book he recognized as a second year literature text, a digital dictionary and a notebook lay open before him. “Having problems with Literature?”

Matsuoka scowled at the books. “Yeah. Too many kanji characters. I can’t make sense of what’s being said and I can’t find an English translation of this book anywhere,” he reluctantly admitted.

“Hey, I can help with that! I can read it to you. You can understand it if it’s being read, right?” Mikoshiba offered cheerfully.

Matsuoka looked up at him with hopeful, wide eyes, then looked down and off to the side. “No, I couldn’t. It’ll probably take up too much of your time.”

Mikoshiba was slightly taken aback.  _Why does he refuse help even though he needs it?_  “It wouldn’t take that long, you know? I’m good for a few chapters at least.” He took in Matsuoka’s tired posture. “Why don’t you take a break? Let’s go for dinner first. I can help you with your Literature back in the dorms.”

Matsuoka looked up with him, then chuckled quietly. “You make it very difficult to say ‘no’, buchou.” 

"Yeah, but why would you want to?" Mikoshiba huffed. "Oh, by the way, Matsuoka?" He waited till he had Rin’s attention.   
  
"Stop calling me ‘buchou’. I have a name. It’s Seijuurou."

——————

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Paperman, an animated short movie by Walt Disney Animation.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QAI4B_2Mfc
> 
>  
> 
> Please watch it if you have not already done so (or maybe even if you already have), it’s very beautiful and my story won’t read as if it’s been inspired by LSD or some similar hallucinogenic drug *cries*. 
> 
>  
> 
> I DID write this under the influence of six cups of coffee though.
> 
> After watching ‘Paperman’, I remembered that canon moment in episode 7, where Rin’s photo sailed off into the sky, carried off by strong wind. Then I thought “What if…?”
> 
> "Returnee kids" like Rin who spent part of their education studying abroad usually have trouble coping with the language, especially kanji (adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana) when they come back, especially if they haven’t been studying in an overseas school for Japanese children.


End file.
